Tag: First World War

Peninsula
The landing of 4th Battalion, Australian troops at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915. (Ernest Brooks, Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Gallipoli Peninsula 1915: Failure is an Orphan

Gallipoli Peninsula 1915: Failure is an Orphan

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From May to November 1915, Churchill held a meaningless sinecure, his only task the appointment of rural judges. “Like a sea-beast fished up from the depths, or a diver too suddenly hoisted,” he wrote, “my veins threatened to burst from the fall in pressure. I had great anxiety and no means of relieving it; I had vehement convictions and small power to give effect to them.… I was forced to remain a spectator of the tragedy, placed cruelly in a front seat.”

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Straits
“Mount Ida and Plains of Troy” by William Wyllie, with HMS Queen Elizabeth bombarding of Turkish forts, March 1915, covered inshore by HMS Canopus. Wyllie’s title relates the nearby site of Homeric Troy, excavated a few years earlier. (Royal Museums, Greenwich, public domain)
Dardanelles Straits 1915: Success Has a Thousand Fathers

Dardanelles Straits 1915: Success Has a Thousand Fathers

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It is widely believed that Churchill proposed the expedition to the Dardanelles Straits to bypass the static slaughter in Europe’s trenches. While this is true in the abstract, the plan was not his original vision, nor was it hatched overnight. Churchill and others first contemplated assaulting Germany and Austria-Hungary from the south. Churchill also proposed attacking Germany from the north, even as the Dardanelles operation was being approved by the War Cabinet.

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Lusitania
RMS Lusitania speeding past Fastnet Light, probably outward bound for New York on her maiden voyage. Near there eight years later, she met her tragic end. (Painting by Norman Wilkinson, pubic domain)
No, Churchill Didn’t Sink the Lusitania, Either

No, Churchill Didn’t Sink the Lusitania, Either

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The scholar Harry V. Jaffa placed most of the blame on human error: “Not only was Lusitania's steam reduced; her crew was also. The best men had been taken by the Royal Navy; lifeboat drills were listless…. The davits by which they had to be lowered were virtually unworkable from the moment the ship began to list. But the greatest of all the failures was the captain’s, since he navigated almost exactly as he would have done in peacetime.” Captain Turner had slowed down after striking the Irish coast, in order to arrive with the tide at Merseyside. 

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World Crisis
Churchill around the time of writing “The World Crisis.” (Painting by James Guthrie, Scottish National Gallery, public domain)
Hillsdale Dialogues Explore Churchill’s “The World Crisis”

Hillsdale Dialogues Explore Churchill’s “The World Crisis”

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"It was the custom in the palmy days of Queen Victoria for statesmen to expatiate upon the glories of the British Empire, and to rejoice in that protecting Providence which had preserved us through so many dangers and brought us at length into a secure and prosperous age. Little did they know that the worst perils had still to be encountered and that the greatest triumphs were yet to be won…."

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reputation
Sketches that failed in execution, 1915. (Political Cartoon Gallery)
Train-Spotting: Churchill’s Reputation in the First World War

Train-Spotting: Churchill’s Reputation in the First World War

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On 20 May 1915 Allies did silence the “Ace of Spades” and other Dardanelles Narrows forts. But the invasion languished with great losses for the ANZAC and British forces. Thus the cartoon: Churchill “promises” that fell short in execution. By October, Gallipoli was nearing evacuation. Churchill, his reputation shattered, would soon leave the cabinet and report to the front. We may understand why he saw events as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

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enemy
British tommies of the Machine Gun Corps fire at German aircraft during the Battle of Arras, 1917. (Photo by John Warwick Brooke, 1886-1929, public domain)
Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

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"The German General Staff called this long-prepared operation by the code name Alberich, after the malicious dwarf of the Nibelungen legend. They left their opponents in the crater fields of the Somme,"

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warmonger
Clementine and Winston Churchill at Territorial Army maneuvers, 1910. (Churchill Archives Centre)
Nashville (4). Churchill as Warmonger in World War I

Nashville (4). Churchill as Warmonger in World War I

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“Winston…has got on all his war-paint” (Asquith)

In 1914, the Great War arrives, and fables about Churchill mul­ti­ply. A pop­u­lar one, kept alive by pun­dits and his­to­ri­ans, alike, is that Churchill led the war­mon­ger par­ty into World War I. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from Part 3...

Patrick J. Buchanan is an affa­ble tory who wrote speech­es for Nixon and ran quixot­ic cam­paigns for Pres­i­dent of the U.S. three times in 1992-2000. (I vot­ed for him once!) He’s an effec­tive con­trar­i­an, and his debat­ing skills are renowned.…

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Antwerp
In Antwerp (wearing Trinity House cap) with his friend Gen. Jack Seely (T.P. O’Connor, “Great Deeds of the War,” 12 Dec 1914). “He completely ignored the enemy fire…criticizing the siting of guns and trenches and emphasizing his points by waving his stick or thumping the ground with it.” Asquith: “If he was able to do himself justice in a foreign tongue, the Belges will have listened to a discourse the like of which they have never heard before.” Excerpted from my new book, “Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality.” To order at $15 off, click under book cover at right. Kindle: amzn.to/2siYbQT
Churchill Myth and Reality: Antwerp. Shocking Folly?

Churchill Myth and Reality: Antwerp. Shocking Folly?

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Churchill’s role in the defense of Antwerp, in Octo­ber 1914, has been called one of his “char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly pirat­i­cal” adven­tures. An emi­nent his­to­ri­an described it as “a shock­ing fol­ly by a min­is­ter who abused his pow­ers and betrayed his respon­si­bil­i­ties. It is aston­ish­ing that [his] cab­i­net col­leagues so read­i­ly for­gave him for a lapse of judg­ment that would have destroyed most men’s careers.”1

 As the Ger­mans closed in around Antwerp, Max Hast­ings writes, Churchill “assem­bled a hotch­potch of Roy­al Marines and sur­plus naval per­son­nel… his own pri­vate army.” Then he “aban­doned his post at the Admi­ral­ty.”…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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